Bingo, Chris! We have to produce competitively-priced, quality products to remain a wealthy nation! I think it's a crime what we have done to our public schools, nowhere near the education today that I received forty years ago. A lack of discipline, student's "rights", and feel-good psychology that doesn't allow teachers to tell students they are wrong because it's bad for their self-esteem. No wonder so many professionals are coming from other countries!
John P (and others), I'm not blaming the unions for the state of the Big Three (although my post could be read that way).
It took management and union leadership working together to create the situation we have today.
Without assigning blame to anyone, it's an unfortunate fact that because of existing and past labor agreements, the Big Three are at a competitive disadvantage. Here's a Business Week article about GM's pension and retiree medical problems, although it's three years old nothing has really changed since it was published.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...6073_mz020.htm
It's a tough situation..
-Sam